I've taken a few plant photos while on vacation in panama. I'll try to upload these photos again (technology sucks down here). Was told that the magnificent tree pictured is called in Spanish a Roble tree. I have come to learn that down here this refers to oak (quercus) spp. - roble, perhaps a variation of robur? This would seem to indicate English oak, but I don't know if the tree in question is introduced or native. Location is Panama la Vieja (the ruins of "Old Panama". Leaves have a definite yellowish cast.
Roble is also used for Nothofagus procera, a quite different looking tree (as is Englush oak). So... This might be another Fagacae of some sort, I suppose, unless those never have fluted (buttress) bases. Going to a botanical garden and seeing a correctly labeled additional example of same tree might be what will be needed to find out.
The leaves don't look like any oak I've seen (certainly not Robur), and do look more like citrus, though overall the tree could be anything from oak to ?? - Very attractive.
As I was browsing the web today, I saw that the Roble de Sabana name is also used in association with Tabebuia rosea, Roble being a reference to the similarity of the wood to oak. I seem to recall the Panamanian guide mentioning something about a wonderful floral display. This would seem to be a very large specimen, but the trunk characteristics seem right. Not so sure about the leaves, although the tree is said to be deciduous, which may account for the coloration.
That is not a genus I would think of in this instance. Most plant species are tropical, trying to identify a tropical tree without some kind of serious lead could be nearly impossible.
This came up as roble oak. http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/562.htm Don't look much like your tree. But look at this one http://www.cds.ed.cr/teachers/harmon/page17.html
Thanks David for the detailed information. Leaves attatched to the lower trunk are from a different species (fig?). What is unclear from the photo is whether the leaves display the palmate form typical of the species. Also, this seems to be another example of the common name game, where one name can denote multiple species. Roble is also applied to Nothofagus obliqua, though it would not seem as well adapted to this particular site, and has a more pyramidal growth habit.
Not offered as a solution to my puzzle, but rather, as a comment on the difficulty of plant identification based on a common name. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Herbarium website includes ten species listings for Roble native to Panama, including: Tabebuia Terminalia amazonia Quercus benthamii Quercus gulielmi-treleasei Couratari guianensis Otoba novogranatensis http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/bioinformatics/databases/herbarium/taxonomy.php
While in Border's bookstore at Alderwood Mall, Lynnwood, WA recently I came across a big fat new Timber Press book on tropical trees. You might want to look for that and flip through it, in case the species in question happens to be included.
It was this one. May have been around a year or two but I hadn't seen it before. http://www.timberpress.com/books/isbn.cfm/0-88192-661-2/tropical_subtropical_trees/barwick
I'll recommend the book - unfortunately, it's so popular among the staff that it often isn't in the reading room, so I haven't been able to use it to tackle some of the questions that come up on here.
